Hi everyone! I learned these few a while ago (2 of them all the way back at level 9, and one of them about a month ago) but wasn’t really sure what the exact difference was. I got a general feel (my guess is 受ける is “getting” something, 受け取る is “taking” something, and 受け入れる is “accepting” something) but it’s not very exact (there’s a lot of overlap for these words), and I’m not even certain if this is really correct. Does anyone know what sort of context would be used for each of these?
Thanks in advance for any future efforts 
Goo辞書’s entry for 受け取る:
Essentially:
- to accept + take; to accept something that has been handed/given to you [ex: “to accept a letter”]
- to take in and interpret others’ words and actions; to understand [ex: “to accept a story at face value”]
- to accept/take on responsibility
For 受け入れる:
Essentially:
- to accept + take in [ex: “to accept water into a container”]
- to welcome in people, objects, etc.; to accept into one’s possession or care [ex: “(of a school) to accept exchange students;” “to adopt customs (culture) from overseas”]
- to acknowledge others’ opinions and demands [ex: “to accept a claim”]
Goo has 11 senses for 受ける, which I’m not going into, but at its heart, it’s receiving, accepting, undergoing, incurring, etc. Compounding it with another verb basically just makes it more specific. So, yeah, you’ve got the gist of it.
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I’ll add that these are not necessarily three words, but rather one word and two phrases. You have ichidan word 受ける and when conjugating it, you cut off the る at the end. So if 受ける is “to receive”, 受け取る is just 受ける conjugated with 取る And similar with 受け入れる
WK has a lot of these in vocabulary, so keep an eye opened for conjugated words. The reason is to present different readings, more natural use of words, and to show that such words may exist. It is not always apparent what the meaning is, but you can always guess when you know how to split it. Like how “to receive” + “to take” means also “to receive”, but suggests that you took something, etc.
Eventually you will need to understand the meaning of these words without translating them to english, as they have unique meaning and english is just an approximation of meaning. You will learn the real meaning from reading and listening over time. You may as well start thinking about it that way now.
Calling compound verbs like these “phrases” is a bit idiosyncratic, I think. Dictionaries (including Japanese-to-Japanese ones) treat them as words like any other, giving them entries and definitions, like the ones @enbyboiwonder quotes. The meaning of a compound verb can often be more specific or sometimes not even obvious from the two verbs that make it up. I favour learning them the same way as any other vocabulary, though obviously the construction gives you a useful hint/reminder about the meaning.
(This is distinct from “works for any verb” combinations like 書きはじめる “to start to write”, where the meaning of Vはじめる is always “start to V” for any verb. Mostly those tend to get taught under the “grammar” heading.)
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